Systems of units still fail to attract the philosophical attention they deserve, but this could change with the current reform of the International System of Units (SI). Most of the SI base units will henceforth be based on certain laws of nature and a choice of fundamental constants whose values will be frozen. The theoretical, experimental and institutional work required to implement the reform highlights the entanglement of scientific, technological and social features in scientific enterprise, while it also invites a philosophical inquiry that promises to overcome the tensions that have long obstructed science studies.

This second open access volume of the handbook series deals with detectors, large experimental facilities and data handling, both for accelerator and non-accelerator based experiments. It also covers applications in medicine and life sciences. A joint CERN-Springer initiative, the "Particle Physics Reference Library" provides revised and updated contributions based on previously published material in the well-known Landolt-Boernstein series on particle physics, accelerators and detectors (volumes 21A,B1,B2,C), which took stock of the field approximately one decade ago. Central to this new initiative is publication under full open access.

The Analytical Methods Committee of the Royal Society of Chemistry has for many years been involved in national and international efforts to establish a comprehensive framework for achieving appropriate quality in chemical measurement.

This handbook attempts to select or define robust procedures that ensure the best use of resources and enable laboratories to generate consistent, reliable data. Written in concise, easy-to-read language and illustrated with worked examples, it is a guide to current best practice and establishes a control framework for the development and validation of laboratory-based analytical methods. Topics include samples and sampling, method selection, equipment calibration and qualification, method development and validation, evaluation of data and statistical approaches for method performance and comparison.

Valid Analytical Methods and Procedures will be welcomed by many organisations throughout the world who are required to prove that the validity of their analytical results can be established beyond reasonable doubt.

The search for neutrinoless double beta decay is one of the highest priority areas in particle physics today; it could provide insights to the nature of neutrino masses (currently not explained by the Standard Model) as well as how the universe survived its early stages. One promising experimental approach involves the use of large volumes of isotope-loaded liquid scintillator, but new techniques for background identification and suppression must be developed in order to reach the required sensitivity levels and clearly distinguish the signal. The results from this thesis constitute a significant advance in this area, laying the groundwork for several highly effective and novel approaches based on a detailed evaluation of state-of-the-art detector characteristics. This well written thesis includes a particularly clear and comprehensive description of the theoretical motivations as well as impressively demonstrating the effective use of diverse statistical techniques. The professionally constructed signal extraction framework contains clever algorithmic solutions to efficient error propagation in multi-dimensional space. In general, the techniques developed in this work will have a notable impact on the field.

The application of standard measurement is a cornerstone of modern science. In this collection of essays, standardization of procedure, units of measurement and the epistemology of standardization are addressed by specialists from sociology, history and the philosophy of science.

This thesis represents one of the most comprehensive and in-depth studies of the use of Lorentz-boosted hadronic final state systems in the search for signals of Supersymmetry conducted to date at the Large Hadron Collider. A thorough assessment is performed of the observables that provide enhanced sensitivity to new physics signals otherwise hidden under an enormous background of top quark pairs produced by Standard Model processes. This is complemented by an ingenious analysis optimization procedure that allowed for extending the reach of this analysis by hundreds of GeV in mass of these hypothetical new particles. Lastly, the combination of both deep, thoughtful physics analysis with the development of high-speed electronics for identifying and selecting these same objects is not only unique, but also revolutionary. The Global Feature Extraction system that the author played a critical role in bringing to fruition represents the first dedicated hardware device for selecting these Lorentz-boosted hadronic systems in real-time using state-of-the-art processing chips and embedded systems.

This volume contains original, refereed contributions by researchers from institutions and laboratories across the world that are involved in metrology and testing. They were adapted from presentations made at the eleventh edition of the Advanced Mathematical and Computational Tools in Metrology and Testing conference held at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, in September 2017, organized by IMEKO Technical Committee 21, the National Physical Laboratory, UK, and the University of Strathclyde. The papers present new modeling approaches, algorithms and computational methods for analyzing data from metrology systems and for evaluation of the measurement uncertainty, and describe their applications in a wide range of measurement areas.This volume is useful to all researchers, engineers and practitioners who need to characterize the capabilities of measurement systems and evaluate measurement data. Through the papers written by experts working in leading institutions, it covers the latest computational approaches and describes applications to current measurement challenges in engineering, environment and life sciences.

The main theme of the AMCTM 2008 conference, reinforced by the establishment of IMEKO TC21, was to provide a central opportunity for the metrology and testing community worldwide to engage with applied mathematicians, statisticians and software engineers working in the relevant fields.This review volume consists of reviewed papers prepared on the basis of the oral and poster presentations of the Conference participants. It covers all the general matters of advanced statistical modeling (e.g. uncertainty evaluation, experimental design, optimization, data analysis and applications, multiple measurands, correlation, etc.), metrology software (e.g. engineering aspects, requirements or specification, risk assessment, software development, software examination, software tools for data analysis, visualization, experiment control, best practice, standards, etc.), numerical methods (e.g. numerical data analysis, numerical simulations, inverse problems, uncertainty evaluation of numerical algorithms, applications, etc.), and data fusion techniques and design and analysis of inter-laboratory comparisons.

This book focuses on the development and implementation of the longitudinal, angular and frequency controls of the Advanced Virgo detector, both from the simulation and experimental point of view, which contributed to Virgo reaching a sensitivity that enabled it to join the LIGO-Virgo O2 run in August 2017. This data taking was very successful, with the first direct detection of a binary black hole merger (GW170814) using the full network of three interferometers, and the first detection and localization of a binary neutron star merger (GW170817). The second generation of gravitational wave detector, Advanced Virgo, is capable of detecting differential displacements of the order of 10-21m. This means that it is highly sensitive to any disturbance, including the seismic movement of the Earth. For this reason an active control is necessary to keep the detector in place with sufficient accuracy.

Systems of units still fail to attract the philosophical attention they deserve, but this could change with the current reform of the International System of Units (SI). Most of the SI base units will henceforth be based on certain laws of nature and a choice of fundamental constants whose values will be frozen. The theoretical, experimental and institutional work required to implement the reform highlights the entanglement of scientific, technological and social features in scientific enterprise, while it also invites a philosophical inquiry that promises to overcome the tensions that have long obstructed science studies.

The application of standard measurement is a cornerstone of modern science. In this collection of essays, standardization of procedure, units of measurement and the epistemology of standardization are addressed by specialists from sociology, history and the philosophy of science.

This first open access volume of the handbook series contains articles on the standard model of particle physics, both from the theoretical and experimental perspective. It also covers related topics, such as heavy-ion physics, neutrino physics and searches for new physics beyond the standard model. A joint CERN-Springer initiative, the "Particle Physics Reference Library" provides revised and updated contributions based on previously published material in the well-known Landolt-Boernstein series on particle physics, accelerators and detectors (volumes 21A,B1,B2,C), which took stock of the field approximately one decade ago. Central to this new initiative is publication under full open access.

This book examines an intelligent system for the inspection planning of prismatic parts on coordinate measuring machines (CMMs). The content focuses on four main elements: the engineering ontology, the model of inspection planning for prismatic parts on CMMs, the optimisation model of the measuring path based on an ant-colony approach, and the model of probe configuration and setup planning based on a genetic algorithm. The model of inspection planning for CMMs developed here addresses inspection feature construction, the sampling strategy, probe accessibility analysis, automated collision-free operation, and probe path planning. The proposed model offers a novel approach to intelligent inspection, while also minimizing human involvement (and thus the risk of human error) through intelligent planning of the probe configuration and part setup. The advantages of this approach include: reduced preparation times due to the automatic generation of a measuring protocol; potential optimisation of the measuring probe path, i.e., less time needed for the actual measurement; and increased planning process autonomy through minimal human involvement in the setup analysis and probe configuration.

The purpose of this book is to present methods for developing, evaluating and maintaining rater-mediated assessment systems. Rater-mediated assessments involve ratings that are assigned by raters to persons responding to constructed-response items (e.g., written essays and teacher portfolios) and other types of performance assessments. This book addresses the following topics: (1) introduction to the principles of invariant measurement, (2) application of the principles of invariant measurement to rater-mediated assessments, (3) description of the lens model for rater judgments, (4) integration of principles of invariant measurement with the lens model of cognitive processes of raters, (5) illustration of substantive and psychometric issues related to rater-mediated assessments in terms of validity, reliability, and fairness, and (6) discussion of theoretical and practical issues related to rater-mediated assessment systems. Invariant measurement is fast becoming the dominant paradigm for assessment systems around the world, and this book provides an invaluable resource for graduate students, measurement practitioners, substantive theorists in the human sciences, and other individuals interested in invariant measurement when judgments are obtained with rating scales.

Often it is more instructive to know 'what can go wrong' and to understand 'why a result fails' than to plod through yet another piece of theory. In this text, the authors gather more than 300 counterexamples - some of them both surprising and amusing - showing the limitations, hidden traps and pitfalls of measure and integration. Many examples are put into context, explaining relevant parts of the theory, and pointing out further reading. The text starts with a self-contained, non-technical overview on the fundamentals of measure and integration. A companion to the successful undergraduate textbook Measures, Integrals and Martingales, it is accessible to advanced undergraduate students, requiring only modest prerequisites. More specialized concepts are summarized at the beginning of each chapter, allowing for self-study as well as supplementary reading for any course covering measures and integrals. For researchers, it provides ample examples and warnings as to the limitations of general measure theory. This book forms a sister volume to Rene Schilling's other book Measures, Integrals and Martingales (www.cambridge.org/9781316620243).

This thesis discusses the physical and information theoretical limits of optical 3D metrology, and, based on these principal considerations, introduces a novel single-shot 3D video camera that works close to these limits. There are serious obstacles for a "perfect" 3D-camera: The author explains that it is impossible to achieve a data density better than one third of the available video pixels. Available single-shot 3D cameras yet display much lower data density, because there is one more obstacle: The object surface must be "encoded" in a non-ambiguous way, commonly by projecting sophisticated patterns. However, encoding devours space-bandwidth and reduces the output data density. The dissertation explains how this profound dilemma of 3D metrology can be solved, exploiting just two synchronized video cameras and a static projection pattern. The introduced single-shot 3D video camera, designed for macroscopic live scenes, displays an unprecedented quality and density of the 3D point cloud. The lateral resolution and depth precision are limited only by physics. Like a hologram, each movie-frame encompasses the full 3D information about the object surface and the observation perspective can be varied while watching the 3D movie.

Faszination Satellitennavigation – welche Rolle spielt sie im täglichen Leben? Wie funktioniert diese Technik? Was wäre, wenn GPS abgeschaltet würde? Und wie steht es um das europäische Galileo-System?In den vergangenen 20 Jahren hat sich die Satellitennavigation von einer anfangs rein militärischen Technologie hin zur vollkommen selbstverständlich genutzten Alltagstechnik entwickelt. Die Bandbreite reicht vom Navigationsgerät im Auto über Smartphones und kleine Empfänger für Outdoorsportler bis hin zu hochgenauen Spezialgeräten zum Zwecke der Landvermessung. Der Autor erläutert die im Prinzip sehr einfache Funktionsweise, welche jedoch in der konkreten Umsetzung modernste Methoden der Nachrichten- und Elektrotechnik, der Geographie und der Physik erfordert.  In der zweiten Auflage wird verstärkt auf das europäische Galileo-System eingegangen und dessen aktueller Ausbaustand beschrieben.

In this concise book, the author presents the essentials every chemist needs to know about how to obtain reliable measurement results. Starting with the basics of metrology and the metrological infrastructure, all relevant topics - such as traceability, calibration, chemical reference materials, validation and uncertainty - are covered. In addition, key aspects of laboratory management, including quality management, inter-laboratory comparisons, proficiency testing, and accreditation, are addressed.

This book covers a wide range of advanced analytical tools, from electrochemical to in-situ/ex-situ material characterization techniques, as well as the modeling of corrosion systems to foster understanding and prediction. When used properly, these tools can enrich our understanding of material performance (metallic materials, coatings, inhibitors) in various environments/contexts (aqueous corrosion, high-temperature corrosion). The book encourages researchers to develop new corrosion-resistant materials and supports them in devising suitable asset integrity strategies. Offering a valuable resource for researchers, industry professionals, and graduate students alike, the book shows them how to apply these valuable analytical tools in their work.

Principles of Scientific Methods focuses on the fundamental principles behind scientific methods. The book refers to "science" in a broad sense, including natural science, physics, mathematics, statistics, social science, political science, and engineering science. A principle is often abstract and has broad applicability while a method is usually concrete and specific. The author uses many concrete examples to explain principles and presents analogies to connect different methods or problems to arrive at a general principle or a common notion. He mainly discusses a particular method to address the great idea behind the method, not the method itself. The book shows how the principles are not only applicable to scientific research but also to our daily lives. The author explains how scientific methods are used for understanding how and why things happen, making predictions, and learning how to prevent mistakes and solve problems. Studying the principles of scientific methods is to think about thinking and to enlighten our understanding of scientific research. Scientific principles are the foundation of scientific methods. In this book, you'll see how the principles reveal the big ideas behind our scientific discoveries and reflect the fundamental beliefs and wisdoms of scientists. The principles make the scientific methods coherent and constitute the source of creativity.

The way science is done has changed radically in recent years. Scientific research and institutions, which have long been characterized by passion, dedication and reliability, have increasingly less capacity for more ethical pursuits, and are pressed by hard market laws. From the vocation of a few, science has become the profession of many - possibly too many. These trends come with consequences and risks, such as the rise in fraud, plagiarism, and in particular the sheer volume of scientific publications, often of little relevance. The solution? A slow approach with more emphasis on quality rather than quantity that will help us to rediscover the essential role of the responsible scientist. This work is a critical review and assessment of present-day policies and behavior in scientific production and publication. It touches on the tumultuous growth of scientific journals, in parallel with the growth of self-declared scientists over the world. The author's own reflections and experiences help us to understand the mechanisms of contemporary science. Along with personal reminiscences of times past, the author investigates the loopholes and hoaxes of pretend journals and nonexistent congresses, so common today in the scientific arena. The book also discusses the problems of bibliometric indices, which have resulted in large part from the above distortions of scientific life.

Central to this thesis is the characterisation and exploitation of electromagnetic properties of light in imaging and measurement systems. To this end an information theoretic approach is used to formulate a hitherto lacking, quantitative definition of polarisation resolution, and to establish fundamental precision limits in electromagnetic systems. Furthermore rigorous modelling tools are developed for propagation of arbitrary electromagnetic fields, including for example stochastic fields exhibiting properties such as partial polarisation, through high numerical aperture optics. Finally these ideas are applied to the development, characterisation and optimisation of a number of topical optical systems: polarisation imaging; multiplexed optical data storage; and single molecule measurements. The work has implications for all optical imaging systems where polarisation of light is of concern.

This immensely practical guide to PIV provides a condensed, yet exhaustive guide to most of the information needed for experiments employing the technique. This second edition has updated chapters on the principles and extra information on microscopic, high-speed and three component measurements as well as a description of advanced evaluation techniques. What's more, the huge increase in the range of possible applications has been taken into account as the chapter describing these applications of the PIV technique has been expanded.